Hundreds of thousands executed in China to harvest and sell their organs

Between 60,000 to 100,000 prisoners are killed and harvested for “spare parts” used in transplants, each year, a human rights monitor reports.

The exact number of prisoners that have been used in this way cannot be exact, but the number of transplants gives us a rough measure that spans on the hundreds of thousands, Ethan Gutmann confirms.

This year’s report leverages whistle-blower evidence, often by individuals with direct involvement in the harvesting. The decade-long study reveals how China is turning the execution of political prisoners into a lucrative industry. People have been killed for their liver, kidney, or whatever is needed for an estimated 1,5 million transplants since 2000.

In turn, the farming and harvesting of dissidents has become the foundation of a “transplant tourism” industry.

Kidney patients receiving dialysis at Wanfang Hospital in Taipei,Taiwan, on 26 February 2013. Every year, some 200 Taiwanese go to China for an organ transplant due to shortage of donated organs in Taiwan. EPA/DAVID CHANG

There are testimonies from doctors that the Chinese government draws victims from a Buddhist revival movement (Falun Gong or Dafa) that at its peak had more than 70 million followers. According to the report, subjects that refuse to denounce religious practices under torture, end up in labour camps, psychiatric hospitals, prisons, black jails, and the operating table. Prisoners of conscience are the preferred pool of harvesting victims.

The International Coalition to End Organ Pillaging is a coalition of lawyers, medical professionals and human rights advocates that are systematically documenting a crime the world knows very little about. Amongst them the former Canadian sexretary of state, David Kilgour, journalist Ethan Gutmann, and lawyer David Matas who have been the face of a campaign.

Taiwan scientist Chen Ju-chen displaying a scar of liver transplant operation he received in Guangzhou, China, in 2004. EPA/DAVID CHANG

The report spans over 700 pages and has over 2,400 footnotes, which qualifies for reasonable level of documentation. In response to the report, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a press conference: “I want to say that such stories about forced organ harvesting in China are imaginary and baseless — they don’t have any factual foundation,” the Independent reports.

In 2015, Amnesty International confirmed China remains the world’s largest executioner of prisoners in the charity’s annual report.

David Kilgour (L), former Canadian parliamentarian and author of the book Bloody Harvest, speaks to media at a news conference as he condemns China harvesting organs from executed prisoners and live Falun Gong members, On 27 February 2013, Taipei Bar Association issued a statement condemning China harvesting prisoners’ organs, and urging Taiwan to enact law to ban Taiwanese from going to China for an organ transplant, thus becoming an accomplice in China’s illegal organ trade. EPA/DAVID CHANG